She was a single mom working three jobs – now she makes millions with just one

Being a single mom is never easy. You have to raise the kids, take care of the bills, run the household and think of everything. So it’s no wonder more and more women are having a hard time managing it all.

Amanda Prowse knows very well how frustrating it can be. As if the daily routine wasn’t hard enough, Amanda was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. Helped by her family, she managed to recover but was in a desperate need for cash. Her husband’s basic salary as a military officer wasn’t enough to cover her medical bills and keep his family afloat and so she was forced to work three jobs simultaneously.

“Just as I would finish my shift at the call center, I would head over to the recruitment company to do another. The weekends were reserved for housekeeping.”, Amanda explains. “It was a real struggle. My kids kept telling me how they miss their mom and dad so much. The hardest times were when I was faced with a large bill or had to pay large upfront costs, such as my son’s nursery fees, which had to be paid quarterly in advance.”

Amanda and her husband, Simeon

Although overwhelmed by her daily worries and choirs, Amanda managed to squeeze out some time to write stories. “It was some mix of venting-out and motivating myself to keep on going. “As a single mom, I became fascinated by various women finding strength, courage and love while going through rough times. And so I decided to write about them”. She managed to publish one book and sent manuscripts to several publishers, hoping to make new chapters, but none of them seemed interested.

As time progressed, so did her debts. Eventually, she ended up using her last credit cards and found herself $7000 in debt. But what she didn’t know was that her books have been gaining popularity fast. Just several days after borrowing money from her parents to pay for gasoline and her own book signing , she was approached by an agent.

“He said he found out about my books from a journalist. He said they were very well written and offered me $6000 in advance to sign a book deal.” After years of struggle, she was finally given a chance to pay her debts and secure a better future for her family. And she wasn’t going to waste it.

She continued to rely on her husband’s salary for another year but managed to gradually write-off her debts. “You tend to work a year to 18 months in arrears. It wasn’t until 2013, after I’d written two or three bestsellers, that I got my first big check of about £50,000 or £60,000”.

Amanda’s latest work, Another love

Today, she publishes three to four bestsellers per year, for which she is paid six-figure royalties in advance. But even though she only has one job now, she still takes it very seriously. “My average working day is around 10 hours long, and I often write during the weekends, even on holidays”, she points out.

Over the past five years her income has sky-rocketed. With books sold in 25 countries, and most in the top-100 lists, Amanda said her earnings had quickly built up. Half of her earnings are kept in a separate account earmarked for tax. And most of the remaining income is put in retirement funds, savings and investments.

Thanks to her new successful career, her husband was able to reduce his service time and come back from Afghanistan and help her with the kids, who are now both away, attending prestigious universities.

“I tend to keep my life as ordinary as possible” she says.“Money has given us freedom of choice so we do travel a lot. In the future we might decide to invest in property but we will see. For the moment, I just want to enjoy life and spend quality time with my family.”